TEA TIME FOR THE TRADITIONALLY BUILT
By Alexander McCall Smith Pantheon, $23.95
Alexander McCall Smith has built a winning franchise from the kindness, common sense and keen understanding of human nature displayed by Precious Ramotswe, proprietor of Botswana's No 1 Ladies' Detective Agency. In "Tea Time for the Traditionally Built," the 10th in the series, Smith continues his heartwarming focus on quotidian mysteries and small victories.

The owner of the Kalahari Swoopers soccer team wants to know why his men consistently lose games they shouldn't, since they boast much more talent than the opposition. Although neither Mma Ramotswe nor her edgy assistant detective Grace Makutsi knows a thing about soccer, they take the case. Mma Ramotswe's foster son Puso is delighted to see the matches and meet the players -- and he even offers a key opinion that leads to a solution.

Mma Makutsi continues her engagement to Phuti Radiphuti, whose father counts a leading furniture store among his properties. But Phuti has just hired Makutsi's arch-enemy from the Botswana Secretarial School, Violet Sephotho, to sell beds for him. Violet is one of those attractive girls with short skirts and few skills that drive Grace (she of the bad skin and big glasses) wild with frustration. She's smart and efficient while they're neither, but they seem to always succeed. Will Violet snare Phuti, too?

And Mma Ramotswe's beloved tiny white van is on its last legs; she is heartbroken but characteristically determined.

We all need news of small victories -- now more than ever -- and we can count on Smith and Mma Ramotswe to deliver.

DEVIL'S GARDEN
By Ace Atkins Putnam, $24.95

After his musically inspired mysteries, in which New Orleans and the Delta play a key role, Ace Atkins has turned to fiction based in real-life events.

"Devil's Garden" stars Sam Hammett, a Pinkerton detective in San Francisco, who gets caught up in the 1921 rape/manslaughter trial of silent film star Fatty Arbuckle. Arbuckle is charged when actress Virginia Rappe dies from injuries apparently suffered during a wild party in his hotel suite. The allegation: The 250-plus-pound comedian literally crushed the life out of her.

Atkins gets his details right as he explores larger-than-life characters including William Randolph Hearst, Marion Davies, Prohibition-era San Francisco and Hollywood itself.

In the closing pages, Hammett is at his typewriter pounding out a story. It's one worth telling.

THE LONG FALL
By Walter Mosley Riverhead, $25.95

In "The Long Fall," Leonid McGill, a 53-year-old former boxer and private detective in New York, is determined to leave his checkered past and shady clientele behind and simply do the right thing.

It's a lot harder than it sounds -- especially when a PI of dubious character asks McGill to find four men, ostensibly to invite them to a memorial service. When he turns over their names, they soon qualify for their own memorial services. McGill has to set this unintended consequence right. He is also the stepfather of the talented big-hearted teen criminal-in-training Twill, a role with many a challenge.

Mosley fans will recognize some of the best qualities of Easy Rawlins (and Mouse and Fearless Jones) in McGill and this intriguing new series.